The AIMSA conference series was ?rst conceived in 1984 as a gathering of AI researchersandstudentsfromEasternandCentralEurope.Sincethenthecon- rence has followed a biennial schedule of meetings in Bulgaria, attracting parti- pantsfromawidergeographicalarea.Today,20yearson,AIMSAisathoroughly international conference, with contributions from most European countries and some from as far a?eld as the United States, Mexico and Brazil. The AIMSA organizers are delighted to present you with another exciting program,coveringmostareasofArti?cialIntelligence.Inkeepingwithitsm- sion to inform the research community and excite the commercial sector, AIMSA presents this year two invited contributions from world-leading European rese- chersworkingoncutting-edgeAIresearch:Prof.CaroleGoble,ontheSemantic Web,andProf.DavidHouse,onintegratedspeechandgesturalsynthesis.In addition, we present 26 contributions on topics covering almost all aspects of AIandbringingtogetherbasicandappliedresearch.Oneofthese,byMilos Kova? cevi´ c and his colleagues on "Recognition of Common Areas in a Web Page Using a Visualisation Approach" was judged by reviewers to be the best s- mitted paper, and duly received the accolade of "Best Paper" of the Conference, with a special slot devoted to it in the program. As Chair of the Program Committee, I am extremely grateful to those who so generously agreed to apply their expertise and valuable time to reviewing papers for the conference, and for their dedication in getting the best possible job done in what turned out to be a very short period of time.